Help! What to do if your car dies

[Puppupandaway]

So, my 2011 C1 has died. The clutch seems to have gone. I cannot get a bite on it. I considered upgrading the car in the summer, had a quote of £250 part ex. It's a really basic car, no electric windows no central locking etc.

I'm guessing a new clutch would be more than the cars worth. So my question is....what the hell do I do now??

Always part ex cars, never had a car that cannot be driven off the drive to sell it.

What do I do??

Clutch failure on these is quite common, I know quite a few that have had them at similar mileage and was going to say about £450 so your quote sounds reasonable to me.

The other garage have been in touch, they're offering to collect vehicle and replace clutch for £360. I've got to wait until Thursday, but I'm very pleased with the price!! We know they're a good reliable local firm too.

You will be charged VAT on the parts (because he'll be paying it), the only thing you won't be paying VAT on is his labour.

My clutch went quite dramatically on a motorway slip road. Got towed back by the AA. Turned out it wasn’t the clutch but the clutch cable, and cost not that much to fix.

It’s always worth thinking about what you’d pay to replace the car rather than comparing the cost to the value of the car.

Costs like that are just part of owning a car surely, rather than an investment? Even if you only do 1000 miles a year I think you have to expect to spend a few hundred on just general upkeep (service, MOT, tyres etc) especially as the bodywork on an older car starts to degrade. I have what I consider a reliable car and I still expect to have to do this and that every year. Anyway, glad ypu got a good quote for the clutch. Hope the car keeps running for another few years.

Definitely get it fixed, you're doing the right thing.

It would be worth over £2k retail.

Plenty life in it yet and basic models are the best. Less to go wrong.

Disks, pads, and tyres are consumables - not a sign of a car showing its age. These are normal expenses.

Well yes, sorry I thought that was implied, you always have to pay VAT on parts regardless of the status of the company.

I had a very similar situation and decided to get rid of it via We Buy Any Car. Got a couple of hundred. Then bought a new-to-me car from AutoTrader. Did it all over 2 days. Done and done.

Just be aware that cars that age are a lottery.

You could spend £500 fixing the clutch, only to find that next year something else goes that will cost you £1k.

Also fixing them can be a lottery. Especially with major fixes. Sometimes they work well after a major fix. And sometimes they don't.

Depends on how well you know the car really, it's mileage, general condition and how well it's been driven.

My 18 year old C3 has only ever been driven by us as we bought it new and we're very careful drivers (even taught DS in it but taught him well!)- no banging up/down kerbs, avoiding potholes, no ridiculous acceleration/braking etc, so very low impact on the mechanics. Nothing has needed replacement/repair other than the normal consumables as per service schedule. Never broken down.

Always passes it's MOT with no problems, not even advisories as the garage who service it keep on top of things and warn us if anything needs replacing before it goes for MOT.

We're pretty confident nothing "bad" is going to happen any time soon so it's certainly not a lottery to replace anything major that needs it on that car.

One of our last cars made it to 190k miles with nothing other than consumables and service schedule.

In 40 years of driving each, we've never needed a replacement clutch nor gearbox, nor engine, etc., and that's from a mix of old/new cars, different brands, etc.

I suppose it's different if you don't know the history of the car but even then, a good mechanic or RAC/AA inspection before purchase should be able to tell you how the mechanical side of things looks.

From my experience of fixing old vehicles, it's more that messing with large repairs can cause ordinary wear and tear to become more of a problem. Something that may have been comfortably rusting in situ for many years might start playing up after being fiddled with.